Peter’s son was accused of receiving money from drug trafficking

Deputy Nicolás Petro, the son of Colombian President Gustavo Petrohe was accused by his ex-wife, Day Vásquez, of receiving money from drug trafficker Samuel Santander Lopesierra, alias the Marlboro Man, for his father’s presidential campaign, which, however, never reached its destination.

In an interview with Semana magazine, Vásquez assured that the man from Marlboro gave Peter’s son, a representative in the assembly of the Caribbean department of Atlántico (North), “more than 600 million pesos (about $124,700 today) for his father’s campaign”.

“It never legally made it into the campaign because he kept that money, like others,” added the woman, who mentioned that Nicolás Petro also received 200 million pesos (about $41,500) from businessman Alfonso “The Turk” Hilsaca who also didn’t They went on a campaign.

The charges have been known for hours after President Petro released a statement asking the prosecutor’s office to investigate his brother Juan Fernando and Nicolás, who is his eldest son, without giving further details.

“Due to the information that has been rumored in the public about my brother Juan Fernando Pedro Urrego and my eldest son Nicolás Pedro Burgos, I am asking the Attorney General to conduct all the necessary investigations and determine possible responsibilities,” the president said.

Petro referred to alleged meetings in prisons where, according to some versions, people around him posed as members of the government to contact criminals and offer them inclusion in the “total peace” program in exchange for money, a suspicion that falls on his brother , but to which his son is not related.

The president’s son assured for his part in a statement that, contrary to what his ex-wife claimsHe had no dealings with “the man from Marlboro” or with “the Turk” Hilasco, people he said he did not know.

Nicolás Petro added that he “did not receive any support, either directly or indirectly” from these people, which is why he requested “an investigation to clarify and protect my honor and good name.”

lopesierra, a Marlboro man, amassed a fortune in the 1980s on the Atlantic coast selling cigarettes and bootleg liquor and he was elected senator in 1994, the same year that the United States authorities confirmed that he was part of a criminal network dedicated to money laundering.

He was arrested in 2002 and extradited to the US in 2003, where he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for drug trafficking, but was released in 2021, before serving the full sentence imposed by a judge in the Federal District of Columbia.

Alfonso Hilsaca Eljaude, Turkish Hilsaca, is another controversial businessman whom prosecutor’s investigations have linked to criminal organizations, including paramilitary groups and administrative corruption mafias, for which he has been imprisoned several times.

In 2009, he was arrested after being linked to the murder of four people in Cartagena de Indias, but was released after eight months due to lack of evidence. In 2010, he returned to prison after various paramilitary leaders accused him of collaborating with them, and in 2014 he was arrested again for another murder. Every time he was released.